McKeesport families evacuated as building crumbles

By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
Four McKeesport families had to be evacuated from a crumbling apartment building in the city’s Grandview neighborhood Thursday night.
The building, which was condemned by a city building inspector Thursday evening, was demolished by Greensburg-based Lutterman Excavating on Friday after an emergency demolition order was issued by city hall.
McKeesport Community Development Director A.J. Tedesco said a neighbor called Mayor Michael Cherepko’s office around 1:30 p.m. Thursday to report that she saw bricks falling off the four-unit apartment building at 2413 Harrison St., adding that she thought she “heard the building shift.”
Tedesco dispatched a city building inspector who determined the building needed to be evacuated because it was “in imminent danger of a worsening condition.”
The building’s owners, Tim Brophy and Allan Genari, both of Pittsburgh, were informed that the building was being condemned, Tedesco said.
The families were given 24 hours to move their belongings from the home under the supervision of a building inspector, according to Tedeseco.
He and the inspectors stayed on scene until 9 p.m. Thursday to ensure that the families were able to safely remove their belongings from the building. The residents and the building inspector finished moving those items Friday morning and demolition commenced shortly after.
Tedesco demanded that the owners pay for the cost of hotel rooms for the families that were displaced. He said Brophy, who met with Tedesco outside the building, offered each tenant the ability to stay in a hotel, but added that some elected to stay with relatives.
Tedesco supplied each family with crisis contact information for the McKeesport branch of The Salvation Army and the western Pennsylvania branch of The American Red Cross.
Brophy and Genari will be cited with 23 violations of the International Property Maintenance Code, Tedesco said.
“We are going after the landlord and are protecting the residents,” Tedesco said. “We acted swiftly once we deemed the building a danger. We couldn’t risk the safety of the tenants.”
Allegheny County property records show that Genari and Brophy have owned the building since 2004.
No one was injured, but Cherepko said it bothers him that people were living in a hazardous environment.
“Unfortunately, this is an example of the dangerous and horrific conditions where some of our residents are forced to live,” Cherepko said. “This situation illustrates why my administration has pursued the Regulated Rental Ordinance, the enforcement of which assures our residents aren’t living in deplorable conditions.
“It’s extremely sad that some landlords care more about making a dollar than providing a safe place for families to live. This is why, from day one, I have said the Regulated Rental Ordinance and its safety guidelines are critical components of making McKeesport a better place to live.”
Passed by council in March 2017, the Regulated Rental Ordinance requires landlords to pay $50 per year to register their rental properties with the city and states that every apartment or rented house must be inspected by the fire department every two years to ensure that the building is safe, smoke detectors are in place and fire exits have not been blocked.